Thursday, July 07, 2005
The Good and the Bad
History as it unfolds is odd.
A federal judge sends a reporter to jail for not disclosing her source.
Bad.
That reporter is Judith Miller, a NY Times reporter who did as much as anyone to hype the war with faulty reporting. In fact, when the Times "apologized" some time back for their coverage of the lead-up to the Iraq war, they were surely referring to Miller's bad journalism (although it went unsaid).
Good.
It seems quite clear that the source being protected is Karl Rove, one of the most dangerous and evil men ever to roam the halls of the White House. This "patriot" told reporters that a certain U.S. diplomate working overseas was actually a CIA agent. This was the inimitable Karl's way of punishing a dissident among the ranks of chickenhawks leading the Christian soldiers on to war. The federal inquiry is now closer to nailing Rove thanks to the judge's heavy-handed tactics. This horrible character will surely (??) have to resign.
Good.
But...jailing a reporter for not revealing a source?
Clearly bad.
A federal judge sends a reporter to jail for not disclosing her source.
Bad.
That reporter is Judith Miller, a NY Times reporter who did as much as anyone to hype the war with faulty reporting. In fact, when the Times "apologized" some time back for their coverage of the lead-up to the Iraq war, they were surely referring to Miller's bad journalism (although it went unsaid).
Good.
It seems quite clear that the source being protected is Karl Rove, one of the most dangerous and evil men ever to roam the halls of the White House. This "patriot" told reporters that a certain U.S. diplomate working overseas was actually a CIA agent. This was the inimitable Karl's way of punishing a dissident among the ranks of chickenhawks leading the Christian soldiers on to war. The federal inquiry is now closer to nailing Rove thanks to the judge's heavy-handed tactics. This horrible character will surely (??) have to resign.
Good.
But...jailing a reporter for not revealing a source?
Clearly bad.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
The Religious
Given their addiction to a mystical explanation for human phenomena, and to a metaphysical basis for morality (effectively blinding them to real-life experience as a moral guide), the religious are capable of all forms of horror…and given their psychological need to reaffirm their self-esteem through the literal “truth” of the particular metaphysical belief structure they choose, the religious are in a perfect position to be manipulated into any sort of crime.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Paul Harvey
This is priceless:
Paul Harvey's Tribute to Slavery, Nukes, Genocide
Hateful rant shows Disney's double standard on speech
7/1/05
Disney/ABC radio personality Paul Harvey, one of the most widely listened to commentators in the United States, presented his listeners on June 23 with an endorsement of genocide and racism that would have been right at home on a white supremacist shortwave broadcast.
Harvey's commentary began by lamenting the decline of American wartime aggression. "We're standing there dying, daring to do nothing decisive because we've declared ourselves to be better than our terrorist enemies--more moral, more civilized," he said. Drawing a contrast with what he cast as the praiseworthy nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, Harvey lamented that "we sent men with rifles into Afghanistan and Iraq and kept our best weapons in their silos"--suggesting that America should have used its nuclear arsenal in its invasions of both countries.
Harvey concluded - "We didn't come this far because we're made of sugar candy. Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and across this continent by giving smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans. That was biological warfare. And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this land from whomever.
"And we grew prosperous. And yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves. So it goes with most great nation-states, which--feeling guilty about their savage pasts--eventually civilize themselves out of business and wind up invaded and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry up-and-coming who are not made of sugar candy."
Harvey's evident approval of slavery, genocide and nuclear and biological warfare would seem to put him at odds with Disney's family-friendly image. The media conglomerate syndicates Harvey to more than 1,000 radio stations, where he reaches an estimated 18 million listeners. Disney recently signed a 10-year, $100 million contract with the 86-year-old Harvey.
In 2004, Disney forbid its Miramax subsidiary to distribute Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11, even though Miramax was the principal investor in the film. A Disney executive told the New York Times (5/5/04) that it was declining to distribute the film because, in the paper's words, "Disney caters to families of all political stripes and believes Mr. Moore's film...could alienate many."
One wonders whether Disney executives are worried about alienating families who oppose slavery, nuclear war and Native American genocide...
-from FAIR:
That last part makes for lovely irony.
I grew up hearing that silly man's voice on the radio. Nice, father-knows-best, homey kind of fascist. As Dmitri says of his terrible father in The Brothers Karamazov: "Why must such men exist??"
Thursday, June 23, 2005
idiots
Federal agents are breaking into establishments in San Francisco that provide marijuana to patients for medical use. People are arrested for using this plant to alleviate pain and suffering.
Unfuckingbelievable.
This kind of Puritan sickness is one of the most disgraceful manifestations of all the human pathologies. A plant grows from the ground. You pick it, dry it and smoke it. It makes many people feel good. Gives pleasure. It need not be processed or changed. Moreover, it lessens the suffering of the ill.
Yet the fucking assholes outlaw it. They send their creeps to bully and arrest people. Lives are destroyed. All in the cause of the squirmy fear, insecurity and nastiness that lurk behind Puritanism.
It's all twisted and evil. Yet millions are convinced that this is normal. That there is something so wrong and dangerous about this plant that it must be outlawed. Poor, ignorant bastards. Fattening themselves with corporate processed cheesewhip crap and mucking up their minds with religious claptrap, marching to the beat of the military drum and flying their ugly (not to be burnt!) flag.
¡Hay que joderse!
Unfuckingbelievable.
This kind of Puritan sickness is one of the most disgraceful manifestations of all the human pathologies. A plant grows from the ground. You pick it, dry it and smoke it. It makes many people feel good. Gives pleasure. It need not be processed or changed. Moreover, it lessens the suffering of the ill.
Yet the fucking assholes outlaw it. They send their creeps to bully and arrest people. Lives are destroyed. All in the cause of the squirmy fear, insecurity and nastiness that lurk behind Puritanism.
It's all twisted and evil. Yet millions are convinced that this is normal. That there is something so wrong and dangerous about this plant that it must be outlawed. Poor, ignorant bastards. Fattening themselves with corporate processed cheesewhip crap and mucking up their minds with religious claptrap, marching to the beat of the military drum and flying their ugly (not to be burnt!) flag.
¡Hay que joderse!
Friday, June 17, 2005
hilarious
Among the long list of socio-political uglies (such as the sudden hysterical concern with drunk driving) that sprang up like so much fungus during the Reagan years (and used by that administration and its successors to deflect working Americans' attention from the fact that they were being economically screwed), the anti-smoking movement was in many ways the most remarkable. Obviously, it has always been a good idea to educate people of the health hazards, and to do what is possible to raise smokers' awareness of how their practice can annoy others. Yet it seems clear that anti-tobacco mania has always been rooted more in puritanism than in health concerns. While Americans have supported ever stronger anti-smoking laws, they have mostly watched complacently as the same law makers eviscerated other kinds of environmental legislation aimed at industrial activity. It's ok if we poison ourselves through our productive activites, or our transportation needs, but not ok if we do so with tobacco. Why? Well, tobacco is, in the end, a pleasure...a vice. Obviously much worse from the perspective of the prevailing "Protestant ethic".
In any case, the anti-tobacco movement has come a long way, and I've always been amazed that erstwhile industry-friendly politicians seemed, for a change, to stick to their principles while sticking it to the big tobacco companies. Amazing, thought I, that Jesse Helms and other right-wing corporate whores would let the government take so much money from their cronies in one of the country's biggest industries...
...Well, as we saw this week, there was no need to ba amazed. In more obvious political maneuvering, Big Tobacco's penalty was cut from 130 billion dollars to 10 billion. Huh? 120 billion dollars that those folks can keep. Logical. Indeed. Jesse, glad you're still around.
I have to say that although I'm no supporter of the big tobacco companies, I have never felt comfortable with the notion of "blaming" them for those people who smoked their way into serious health problems. Anyone who has ever inhaled tobacco smoke would have to be a complete idiot not to realize that damage was being done to the body. The notion that the tobacco companies fooled people into smoking serves to remove all individual responsibility from the individuals themselves. Problematic. In line with the "always look for a bad guy to blame" syndrome that infects the American soul. People are, for the most part, not innocent morons. They are fully capable moral agents capable of making decisions.
In any case, if those presumed 130 billion (arrived at after five years of legal struggle) were to have been plowed into a fund for public health, that would have been fine. But who are we kidding? The main point here is the utter consistency of class-interest over the public good revealed time and again by those currently in power...
...and they were voted in by those espousing "moral values". It's hilarious.
In any case, the anti-tobacco movement has come a long way, and I've always been amazed that erstwhile industry-friendly politicians seemed, for a change, to stick to their principles while sticking it to the big tobacco companies. Amazing, thought I, that Jesse Helms and other right-wing corporate whores would let the government take so much money from their cronies in one of the country's biggest industries...
...Well, as we saw this week, there was no need to ba amazed. In more obvious political maneuvering, Big Tobacco's penalty was cut from 130 billion dollars to 10 billion. Huh? 120 billion dollars that those folks can keep. Logical. Indeed. Jesse, glad you're still around.
I have to say that although I'm no supporter of the big tobacco companies, I have never felt comfortable with the notion of "blaming" them for those people who smoked their way into serious health problems. Anyone who has ever inhaled tobacco smoke would have to be a complete idiot not to realize that damage was being done to the body. The notion that the tobacco companies fooled people into smoking serves to remove all individual responsibility from the individuals themselves. Problematic. In line with the "always look for a bad guy to blame" syndrome that infects the American soul. People are, for the most part, not innocent morons. They are fully capable moral agents capable of making decisions.
In any case, if those presumed 130 billion (arrived at after five years of legal struggle) were to have been plowed into a fund for public health, that would have been fine. But who are we kidding? The main point here is the utter consistency of class-interest over the public good revealed time and again by those currently in power...
...and they were voted in by those espousing "moral values". It's hilarious.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
overwhelming evidence
I can't resist quoting a question posed by Steve Weissman last week:
"What if rational thought misses the cosmic plot? What if our prayerful president, his oil-soaked pre-emptive wars, and his amen chorus of religious reactionaries have come together to do the devil's work? What if Satan - and not just the demonic Dick Cheney - now drives the global train wreck?
"What if rational thought misses the cosmic plot? What if our prayerful president, his oil-soaked pre-emptive wars, and his amen chorus of religious reactionaries have come together to do the devil's work? What if Satan - and not just the demonic Dick Cheney - now drives the global train wreck?
For many believers, the evidence seems overwhelming."
The world turned upside down? Perhaps. Or is there something implicitly inverse about the Christian message?
Monday, June 13, 2005
arde
It's old and continual news in the States - how the right uses homofobia (hatred, fear, insecurity and a host of other pathologies) to win elections. No one can doubt the sheer evil political genius of Rove and his minions in placing anti-gay marriage referendums in important states last November (of course, we cannot just put the blame on the Roves of the world...or the Goebbels of the world, for that matter - in the end, those were individual citizens who were spurred on to go out to the polls and vote for inept, corrupt creeps - all out of their squeemish, pathological hatred of how some folks care to love). Here in Spain the issue is still hot. The somewhat progressive PSOE government passed a new law legalizing same-sex marriage some time back, and the current opposition party (Partido Popular), surely taking a cue from some creepy Washington political consultancy, has recently been moving their base with homofobia. They managed to bring tens of thousands into the streets of Madrid last week, all in "defence of the sacred institution of marriage". Makes one sick. All of this, of course, with the active participation of the Catholic church - as always right there on the vanguard of political nastiness. There is no real p0litical logic, of course. The Church has never accepted civil marriages itself, and the new law only applies to State-recognition of same-sex unions. So, one might ask, what in hell are they doing getting involved in criticizing something they already reject for heterosexual couples?
Nothing. I'm sure that none of them could give a flying fuck. Neither in the gilded offices of the Vatican or their affiliates in Spain or elsewhere. Nor do those cynical politicians using this issue to retain or regain power give a goddamn whether two men or two women can have their union legally recognized. They simply know that it's a good way to bring out their sordid base - that part of the electorate that bases its "moral values" on fear, puritanism, squeamishness, hatred...and above all, hypocricy...
Which once again makes me wonder: why must we continue to show respect for these sky-god movements, while they continue to show complete disrespect for those who do not share in their bizarre metaphysical constructs? For chrissakes, it is really annoying.
An oftheard Spanish anarchist refrain that I really like: La unica iglesia que ilumina es la que arde.
Indeed.
Nothing. I'm sure that none of them could give a flying fuck. Neither in the gilded offices of the Vatican or their affiliates in Spain or elsewhere. Nor do those cynical politicians using this issue to retain or regain power give a goddamn whether two men or two women can have their union legally recognized. They simply know that it's a good way to bring out their sordid base - that part of the electorate that bases its "moral values" on fear, puritanism, squeamishness, hatred...and above all, hypocricy...
Which once again makes me wonder: why must we continue to show respect for these sky-god movements, while they continue to show complete disrespect for those who do not share in their bizarre metaphysical constructs? For chrissakes, it is really annoying.
An oftheard Spanish anarchist refrain that I really like: La unica iglesia que ilumina es la que arde.
Indeed.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
arrogance
Hmmm...so many leaked stories and images of the degradations of war...torture, abuse, inhuman treatment of prisioners...physical and psychological abuse of citizens...a vanquished ex-leader shown in his underwear. Indignities not just for the victims, but, normally, for the perpetrators. One would think that the current U.S. military, and administration, would want to conceal such horrors committed in the name all north American citizens...if only to somehow justify their actions in the name of being the "better", or perhaps more highly "moral" side of the conflict.
But no. These stories and images continue to leak out of the various hell-holes produced by what they call the "war on terror". How is it possible? It is logical to assume that with all their power, technology, and seeming indifference to American Constitutional safeguards, that these people would be able to stop such information from emerging.
Which leads me to believe that it is all quite purposeful.
Purposeful behaviour from people who are not functioning in any classically American-style pragmatic manner, nor ruled by any traditional notions of realpolitique. If it were so, this would provide at least a glimmer of hope, in that the torrent of lies and murderous brutality shown by the U.S. administration would represent nothing more than a greedy oil grab and mega-pork project for the Halliburtons, et. al. That would simply be a classic display of cold-hearted power by mafia types in suits. This has happend before, and it will happen again. In any case, that would call for a more thorough and professional P.R. front. Barbaric practices by U.S. citizens, representing all such citizens, one might think, would needlessly erode the kind of political support needed to maintain this unholy oil/military industry pork soup.
But no. This news and these images continue to emerge. The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that they simply want to scare the shit out of what these crazed fascists believe are "the other"..."the bad guys"...those who don't even value life...
In short, it is a manifestation of the "new crusade" mentality against, for now, the Muslim world.
It would seem that we are not only witnessing a horrid display of greed and evil in the name of "defending" America, with the accompanying creation and exploitation of fear and ignorance, and the resulting attack on the American political system (they call these people "conservatives"!!), but at the same time the perpetrators are quite insane religious fanatics. Not only do they talk this way, but their actions lead to the uncomfortable conclusion that they really believe their own fascist fantasies.
Those who annoy me the most in all this are the spineless yapping chickenhawk "intellectuals" who supported and continue to support carnage and evil in our names. They should know better than to fall into this simplistic "clash of civilizations" formula.
Yet they yap on, in their arrogant way.
Hay que joderse!
But no. These stories and images continue to leak out of the various hell-holes produced by what they call the "war on terror". How is it possible? It is logical to assume that with all their power, technology, and seeming indifference to American Constitutional safeguards, that these people would be able to stop such information from emerging.
Which leads me to believe that it is all quite purposeful.
Purposeful behaviour from people who are not functioning in any classically American-style pragmatic manner, nor ruled by any traditional notions of realpolitique. If it were so, this would provide at least a glimmer of hope, in that the torrent of lies and murderous brutality shown by the U.S. administration would represent nothing more than a greedy oil grab and mega-pork project for the Halliburtons, et. al. That would simply be a classic display of cold-hearted power by mafia types in suits. This has happend before, and it will happen again. In any case, that would call for a more thorough and professional P.R. front. Barbaric practices by U.S. citizens, representing all such citizens, one might think, would needlessly erode the kind of political support needed to maintain this unholy oil/military industry pork soup.
But no. This news and these images continue to emerge. The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that they simply want to scare the shit out of what these crazed fascists believe are "the other"..."the bad guys"...those who don't even value life...
In short, it is a manifestation of the "new crusade" mentality against, for now, the Muslim world.
It would seem that we are not only witnessing a horrid display of greed and evil in the name of "defending" America, with the accompanying creation and exploitation of fear and ignorance, and the resulting attack on the American political system (they call these people "conservatives"!!), but at the same time the perpetrators are quite insane religious fanatics. Not only do they talk this way, but their actions lead to the uncomfortable conclusion that they really believe their own fascist fantasies.
Those who annoy me the most in all this are the spineless yapping chickenhawk "intellectuals" who supported and continue to support carnage and evil in our names. They should know better than to fall into this simplistic "clash of civilizations" formula.
Yet they yap on, in their arrogant way.
Hay que joderse!
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
yapping
I've just read that there are currently 10 million of these blogs...with 30 t0 40 thousand more added each day. A wonderful thing indeed, with all of us being able to share all of our wonderful, insightful thoughts, stimulating and interesting experiences, lovely photos and whatnot with each other. And if we are particularly adept and energetic with our "advertisements for ourselves", we can rest assured that our contributions will be soaked up by hundreds, thousands or even millions of other minds.
At the same time.
All of us, yapping away in cyberspace. Mass self-actualization.
Great stuff. Like millions of barking dogs in the electronic night...
awwooooooooooo!!!
At the same time.
All of us, yapping away in cyberspace. Mass self-actualization.
Great stuff. Like millions of barking dogs in the electronic night...
awwooooooooooo!!!
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Monday, April 25, 2005
Jesus!
Watched Tim Robbin's amazing "Bob Roberts" last night. It was made back in the early 90's, with the emphasis on the outer limits of social pathologies spawned by Reaganism. At the time is was a frightening but humorous parody...
Not now. I no longer laughed. The film was utterly believable. As they say, reality always trumps fiction, and the depths of grotesque insanity into which U.S. culture/politics is falling have made Robbin's film very troubling to watch.
At about the same time that I was watching "Bob Roberts", tens of millions of "Christians" in the U.S. were watching and listening to a host of christofascist politicians and media figures celebrate "Justice Sunday"...in which so-called "conservatives" lined up to toss stones at the Constitution and the separation of church and state. Lots of foaming at the mouth. More insanity.
How did things get this way? The U.S. has always had a minority current of extreme religious pathology running through its culture...and sometimes into its politics (One nation under God). But the project forged by the Enlightenment-inspired wealthy intellectuals referred to as the "founding fathers" has never been under greater threat of destruction...the christofascists seem like sharks on a feeding frenzy.
Whoever the hell was behind the big-time violence of 9/11 surely knew which button to push. Fear has twisted a large portion of a nation into ugly insanity. I shiver to think what would happen after another such episode.
Meanwhile...an old Nazi-Youth - the head of the Vatican's modern day inquisition, the destroyer of the spring of decency once represented by Liberation Theology, one who has the nerve to equate 60's political movements with potential Nazism - is head of that ridiculous institution.
There's a good word in Spanish for all of this: esperpentico...
Not now. I no longer laughed. The film was utterly believable. As they say, reality always trumps fiction, and the depths of grotesque insanity into which U.S. culture/politics is falling have made Robbin's film very troubling to watch.
At about the same time that I was watching "Bob Roberts", tens of millions of "Christians" in the U.S. were watching and listening to a host of christofascist politicians and media figures celebrate "Justice Sunday"...in which so-called "conservatives" lined up to toss stones at the Constitution and the separation of church and state. Lots of foaming at the mouth. More insanity.
How did things get this way? The U.S. has always had a minority current of extreme religious pathology running through its culture...and sometimes into its politics (One nation under God). But the project forged by the Enlightenment-inspired wealthy intellectuals referred to as the "founding fathers" has never been under greater threat of destruction...the christofascists seem like sharks on a feeding frenzy.
Whoever the hell was behind the big-time violence of 9/11 surely knew which button to push. Fear has twisted a large portion of a nation into ugly insanity. I shiver to think what would happen after another such episode.
Meanwhile...an old Nazi-Youth - the head of the Vatican's modern day inquisition, the destroyer of the spring of decency once represented by Liberation Theology, one who has the nerve to equate 60's political movements with potential Nazism - is head of that ridiculous institution.
There's a good word in Spanish for all of this: esperpentico...
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
An April Morn
I recall reading a line just after last November's elections that made me chuckle. Something along the lines of how the elections had transformed the writer into a right winger, i.e., he hated the working class and had ceased to believe in evolution...
Indeed.
Now I read that it's time for the Christofascists to ideologically cleanse the "liberal-biased" (whatever the hell that is) U.S. universities. Any professor accused of "offending the beliefs" of a student (e.g., not giving equal time to creationism) can be sued in court by that student.
Why not just throw the offending "liberals" into concentration camps (they could be set up around the new oil drilling fields in Alaska)...
Jeez.
Meanwhile, I was thinking about what Spain was like last year at this time. The Islamofascists had done another deed for their skygod by blowing up a bunch of commuter trains...blood and guts just before the general elections. The political party in power at the time, the Partido Popular, erroneously sensing that they could loose support (90% of Spaniards were consistently against Spanish participation in the Iraq war), quickly panicked. They blamed the attacks on the Basque separatist group ETA (a situation which, if true, would have served to increase public support for the PP). Evidence quickly accumulated that this was not the work of ETA, but rather of a group of Islamofascists. However, the PP continued to insist, blindly and emphatically, on the other thesis. They managed to continue in this "massive lying and manipulation of the Spanish people" (as Zapatero, the new president would describe it 6 months later) right up until election day...
An amazing thing happened. Millions of disgusted Spanish voters went to the polls (most of whom were left-leaning, and who hadn't voted in years due to disappointment with the "left" parties), and voted the lying bastards out.
For this act of courage and democratic action, the Spanish people were immediately treated to accusations of bowing to terrorism, cowardice, etc. All of this, of course, from foreign columnists, chickenhawks and other opinion mongers...
And I have to laugh today, thinking about how the terrorists have truly affected elections in this world. They have succeeded in transforming the USA into a population ruled by fear. A population (a goodly percentage, anyway) who voted for the most inept, anti-American administration in history out of fear. Cowardly fear. An adminstration that is cynically making fools of their own voting base...
And they say the Spaniards succumbed to terrorism...
Hay que joderse.
Indeed.
Now I read that it's time for the Christofascists to ideologically cleanse the "liberal-biased" (whatever the hell that is) U.S. universities. Any professor accused of "offending the beliefs" of a student (e.g., not giving equal time to creationism) can be sued in court by that student.
Why not just throw the offending "liberals" into concentration camps (they could be set up around the new oil drilling fields in Alaska)...
Jeez.
Meanwhile, I was thinking about what Spain was like last year at this time. The Islamofascists had done another deed for their skygod by blowing up a bunch of commuter trains...blood and guts just before the general elections. The political party in power at the time, the Partido Popular, erroneously sensing that they could loose support (90% of Spaniards were consistently against Spanish participation in the Iraq war), quickly panicked. They blamed the attacks on the Basque separatist group ETA (a situation which, if true, would have served to increase public support for the PP). Evidence quickly accumulated that this was not the work of ETA, but rather of a group of Islamofascists. However, the PP continued to insist, blindly and emphatically, on the other thesis. They managed to continue in this "massive lying and manipulation of the Spanish people" (as Zapatero, the new president would describe it 6 months later) right up until election day...
An amazing thing happened. Millions of disgusted Spanish voters went to the polls (most of whom were left-leaning, and who hadn't voted in years due to disappointment with the "left" parties), and voted the lying bastards out.
For this act of courage and democratic action, the Spanish people were immediately treated to accusations of bowing to terrorism, cowardice, etc. All of this, of course, from foreign columnists, chickenhawks and other opinion mongers...
And I have to laugh today, thinking about how the terrorists have truly affected elections in this world. They have succeeded in transforming the USA into a population ruled by fear. A population (a goodly percentage, anyway) who voted for the most inept, anti-American administration in history out of fear. Cowardly fear. An adminstration that is cynically making fools of their own voting base...
And they say the Spaniards succumbed to terrorism...
Hay que joderse.
Monday, April 04, 2005
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